Good points, though I have to wonder what stops farmers from at least setting aside a little bit of land to grow vegetables for their own families' consumption. Heck, I've seen Greek and Italian women in Brooklyn grow virtual truck gardens in a 40' x 40' back yard, with grape trellises nailed to the garage and tomatoes and peppers in tubs on the porch. Food deserts in densely-populated urban areas, on the other hand, are usually the result of grocery chains refusing to open stores in "bad" neighborhoods...something that, curiously enough, McDonald's, et al., have no problem with. Someone did an impromptu survey of two stores from the same chain in L.A., one in an upscale neighborhood, the other in a poorer area. The differences in the foods available, and the prices, were astounding.
There is an aspect of supply and demand in the urban food desert, any grocery store is going to have to stock produce, dairy, etc. If noone is buying them, it can get expensive. Fast food is the equivalent of the center aisles of the grocery store, highly processed, non perishable, and low in nutritional value. Not as much risk in that. Again, look at Hispanic culture, where ever they go, the grocery stores follow, and they're known for fresh produce, and better than supercenter meat counters. As for farmers keeping a reserve for their own families, this happens more than you know. Lots of conventional beef folk hold back a fattened steer for themselves, sans hormones & antibiotics. I've read of a large Cali tomato grower that will not eat his own tomatoes, but keeps a garden of the good heirloom stuff for himself. Chicken farmers do this too, but did you know that commercial chicken companies forbid any other chickens on a farm that raises their commercial birds? They'll claim that a few hens in the yard represent a threat to the biosecurity of their industrial flock. I've given this analogy before, and it's not mine, but here goes... I can hang a steer from a tree, butcher it, and save all the meat for me and mine. You can come over, and eat one of these steaks, it may be the best you've ever eaten. But if you want to take some home, and money changes hands, I'll go to jail for selling unsafe meat. To be right and legal, that steak needs to be wrapped in styrofoam, plastic, and a $100,000 facility. Considering that my kids can legally eat that meat, when did it become unsafe?
One wonders what makes so much of the south to be a poor shit hole. It can't all just be the negros. I saw way to many fat white asses in the south to ever believe it is all just the blacks who are overweight. All of you fat bastards need to go on diets and jog a bit more. No more riding around Walmart in those electric scouters for you fat boys.
I noticed that strech looked like reservation lands and had just attributed it to poor diet, I wasn't aware of a processing issue though.
Nothing, I imagine, other then the fact that vegitables are fairly difficult to harvest (you have to do it by hand instead of just riding in a combine) so like most lazy Americans they prefer to simply buy them at the store. Or at least that's what I think. Of course, I laughed my ass off at stupid tea party people who, responding to a Hispanic call to pick their own tomatoes if they hated Mexicans so much, simply went to the store an bought tomatoes which they then throw at the guy. While I enjoy seeing tomatoes thrown at a big mouth I have to say that having hundreds of people lazily buying said produce at a store instead of picking it made his point.
Nope, it takes the Federal government as well. We have not had any real representative government since the carpet baggers and reconstruction. Not in my lifetime anyways, its all been about following the Yankee lead rather than going our own way. Anything that ever made the south any money has been destroyed by them. Cotton, tobacco, you name it.
You're right, the South is a poor, illiterate and obese shithole because the damned Yankees took away your slaves.
Any objective person has to admit southerners, white, black, or other wise, are a bunch of fat fuckers. I can remember being 12 years old and flying to Atlanta with my family to visit my aunt (my father's sister) and being shocked, yes, shocked by the shear number of over weight people compared to southern California. Yes, part of it is we have a health nut culture but an even bigger part of it (size 50 pants part of it) is that the south has a culture of being fat fuckers. What is worse is the food is almost universally worse down there; there are notable exceptions but the average is much, much higher out here. California is a lot like NYC in that it has a food centric culture yet we're not even remotely as fat as you bastards. Here it is all about quality and not quantity. That's why we're always in the top 1-5 of most fit states.
I'm convinced the south could never rebel again. Five minutes of jogging would leave your nation on its knees. Literally.
Don't matter who makes it, its been regulated or traded away. Plenty of equipment that does the job that human hands used to do, but it don't matter. They have broken the back of the small farmer and even the big farmers in the south. We have all seen it.
Cotton and tobacco aren't food. Plus no two other crops take more from the soil than those two. A lot of southern soils are in poor shape because of those two crops, bringing on a whole host of issues.
Amen. I just feel bad for his family when they have to cut his legs off because his diabetes has gotten so bad because he can't control himself.
No they aren't food but they were sure cash crops of the south. We could still be growing those two products like no other place on earth if there was any kind of support from the Federal government. All the production and mills that make it into something usable have been sent overseas, or else they have allotments or some bullshit that just kills it.
What a load of horse shit. Your precious south is the worst bunch of scum sucking welfare queens we have in this country. Your worthless ass sucking is up WAY more Federal money then your poverty stricken economies can afford to pay in Federal taxes and then while you whine endlessly about paying said taxes you get any where from $1.30-$3 back from the Feds for every dollar you pay. It's been that way for well over a century. You're all a bunch of worthless welfare queens who should die because the rest of the country would be better off not having to endlessly subsidize your worthless asses. I might not actually mind having to give you endless amounts of money, after all no one want a 3rd world shit hole in America (and make no mistake 90% of the south would be 3rd world without money from rich urban states) but I do get tired with how arrogant and greedy you useless shit suckers are. Be grateful for once and stop biting the hand that feeds you, even dogs can figure that out but it's beyond the intelligence of southerners.
Do you notice something about this map? The entire south, other then exactly two states which barely pay anything in net taxes, is a net drain on the country. You're all a bunch of worthless welfare queens who could die and improve the whole fucking country. Don't tell me about how you pay taxes because most of you shit suckers don't pay a thin penny in net taxes. The rest of us, the parts of the country which aren't shit holes, are forced to subsidize you because you're so backwards and useless. So for once in your lives shut the fuck up and be grateful that your betters feel sorry that you live in such shitty places. Don't you dare even try to claim it is because of military bases either because California has by far more military bases and military spending then any other state yet we still find money to give to you welfare cases. Maybe if we didn't have to subsidize your worthless asses then we'd actually be doing much better.
Ain't none of that fucking money going to me. That money spent probably also includes the big military bases and such here. The fed is taking a good portion of my money and I don't see a damn thing for it. Where are they spending this money? It much be the government pension checks of retired yankees that they are counting in that.
